Norway may ban gas cars after 2015

Photo credit: blmurch

Kristin Halvorsen, Finance Minister in Norway, has together with her Socialist Left Party proposed a plan that would forbid the sale of new cars that run solely on gasoline after 2015 in the country.

According to her proposal new cars, bought after 2015, which only uses gas as their power source would be illegal. New hybrids, cars that run partially on gas, on the other hand would still be allowed to be sold in Norway. And cars already on the road would be unaffected by the new proposed law.

“The financial crisis also means that a lot of those car producers that now have big problems … know that they have to develop their technology because we also have to solve the climate crisis when this financial crisis is over,” Halvorsen was quoted as telling Reuters.

The proposal has already met some resistance in Norway where the skeptics say the proposed ban would undermine the country’s economy (Norway is the world’s number six oil exporter). But Halvorsen says that won’t be the case:

“Not at all … we know that the world will be dependent on oil and gas for many decades ahead but we have to introduce new technologies and this is a proposal to support that,” she said.

Halvorsen said that the resistance to the proposal in Norway is mostly based on misunderstandings:

“A lot of people are very fond of their cars, it’s like a member of the family,” she said. “A lot of people thought that this proposal also would go after the cars we already have. That is not the case, it’s the new cars that are bought after 2015.”

The Socialist Left Party in Norway is not alone with proposing a ban on cars that only run on gas. In Sweden the green party (currently the third biggest party in Sweden) has proposed a similar ban on gas cars by 2015. And one of the right-wing parties (Centerpartiet) in Sweden have proposed, just like Halvorsen, that cars that only run on gas would be banned, but not until year 2025.

I think this is a great proposal from Kristin Halvorsen and the Socialist Left Party. The auto companies are too greedy and to slow to adopt to a more eco-friendly business fast enough. And as you probably already know, time is not on our side anymore.

No, instead Governments around the world need to introduce legislations like this one to speed up the process of moving towards a more environmentally friendly and sustainable future. If we don’t and let the corporations and auto companies decide when and how we won’t have the slightest chance to win over man-made climate change.

And I don’t see this as being impossible to accomplish. There is 6 years until 2015, cars that run partially on gas are still allowed and like Halvorsen says: cars already on the road would be unaffected.

Simon Leufstedt is the editor of Green Blog. Simon has previously studied Global Environmental Justice and is currently studying Human Ecology and Political Science at Lund University in Sweden. Simon is also blogging over at the Swedish 350 website and working with the Swedish TckTckTck organisation. You can follow Simon on Twitter and on Google+.
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